Angry Leftists vs. Angry White Men

[August1991]

This latest eruption of Obama's pastor, the Rev. Wright, spawned the following column. As I read it, I realized that many Leftists are angry. The Left has a penchant for victimhood and blames the oppressor - often America, the Rich or white people or men.

This isn't a unique feature. On the Right, there are Angry White Men who typically blame immigrants, women, the government, the NDP or God knows who else for their perceived downtrodden status in life.

We have several posters here fall into either category. Indeed, I sometimes wonder about the kinds of internal conversation some of our posters have. I wonder whether they talk to themselves the way that this Rev. Wright does. His internal conversations must be doozies.

Hate mongers collect injustices. If you and I did that, we could collect an endless laundry list about all the bad things somebody did to us. Maybe we have been hurt by men, or by women. Maybe we have been hurt by rich people, or by the angry poor. Maybe we have been hurt by Jews or blacks or whites, and we can put all our built-up rage on their heads. It's been done many times in the human past; that's exactly the psychology we see at work in Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, and various Muslim nations (among others), when explosive massacres take place. Mob psychology has been manipulated by demagogues throughout history. This is simply the another version of the Kluxers and Jim Crow lynch mobs. Today I see that psychology clearly enough on the Left, but outside of the ranting rooms of verifiable paranoids I don't see it many other places in this country.

Selectively collected injustices can keep us on the boil for a lifetime, because we ruminate on and on in all our waking hours about all the terrible things people have done to us. That is what the Left feeds itself in an endless stream; it is not a healthy thing to do. But it's what Jeremiah Wright has done to himself and to his congregation -- and who knows to how many thousands of other people? -- for almost all of his adult life. This is the Grand Inquisitor's view of America, the enraged prosecution case, without even imagining the possibility of innocence. This is what demagogues and witch hunters have always done, but I had never thought I'd see it in my lifetime.

...

So it's not just Senator Obama who is stuck with Mr. Wright today. We are all stuck with a rageful Left, which really wants to destroy rather than to build. They mentally rehearse perceived injustices over and over again, and they blame this country for all the evil in the world, including AIDS in the black community. They never look at another side. Many have no honest conception of other countries, other cultures, or other points of view. They are not balanced people.

Link

[BubberMiley]

What makes you think Wright is on the left?

[August1991]

What makes you think Wright is on the left?

I somehow doubt that the Rev. Wright voted for W. in the last US election.

More pertinently, if you flip though the comments to reports of his speeches and press conference, you'll find many posters saying that Wright is just telling the truth and some people can't handle it. If you go to en masse or rabble, or even consider some of the "left" posters here, you'll find the same rage and anger directed at the US, Bushitler and the same obsession with some mythical boogyman who oppresses the, uh, victims. These posters rant and rail and yes, they are "Left".

I don't pretend that the Right is exempt - but the obsession is different.

[Peter F]

As I read it, I realized that many Leftists are angry. The Left has a penchant for victimhood and blames the oppressor - often America, the Rich or white people or men.

I see. Forgive me for blaming the oppressor. I should know better than to blame oppression on the oppressor. Should I feel oppressed in the future I will make sure to tell myself that oppression is a state of mind.

Link

We are all stuck with a rageful Left, which really wants to destroy rather than to build. They mentally rehearse perceived injustices over and over again, and they blame this country for all the evil in the world, including AIDS in the black community. They never look at another side. Many have no honest conception of other countries, other cultures, or other points of view. They are not balanced people.

So the entire American body politic has a festering sore on its hands. This will not go away by itself. It will not be bought off by more money. It must be repudiated by the sensible Left, if it is still there. Just as William F. Buckley denounced the anti-Semites on the right, and sensible Americans rejected segregation and the Klan, just as American unions expelled Stalinist unions from the AFL-CIO, the time has come for the decent Left to draw a bright line in the sand, and keep the hate mongers out.

Thats quite the irrational statement the man just made. The Left are not balanced people yet it is the unbalanced Left that must conclude that they have no greivances and that things are just dandy.

One wonders if this turkey thinks the USofA should be a one-party democracy.

[August1991]

Forgive me for blaming the oppressor. I should know better than to blame oppression on the oppressor. Should I feel oppressed in the future I will make sure to tell myself that oppression is a state of mind.

Sorry if I have gotten this all wrong.

I was merely observing that posters like Leafless (who blames everything on Quebec and the French) or posters like Argus (who blames everything on goat-herding immigrants) are remarkably similar to the Rev. Wright (who blames verything on white America) or posters like eyeball (who blames everything on Bush and America).

I suspect that "Angry Leftists" and "Angry White Men" have similar internal conversations. The conversation always winds up berating one group. For Leftists, they blame fat, white SUV drivers. For angry white guys, they blame fat, immigrant SUV drivers.

Same diff.

[Topaz]

Sorry if I have gotten this all wrong.

I was merely observing that posters like Leafless (who blames everything on Quebec and the French) or posters like Argus (who blames everything on goat-herding immigrants) are remarkably similar to the Rev. Wright (who blames verything on white America) or posters like eyeball (who blames everything on Bush and America).

I suspect that "Angry Leftists" and "Angry White Men" have similar internal conversations. The conversation always winds up berating one group. For Leftists, they blame fat, white SUV drivers. For angry white guys, they blame fat, immigrant SUV drivers.

Same diff.

Blame white America?? Well who holds more power in America whites or others? Who has been elected to run the white house ,whites or others. I don't agree with some of the things this guy says but you gotta admit, there's some truth about white america.

[guyser]

I was merely observing that posters like Leafless (who blames everything on Quebec and the French) or posters like Argus (who blames everything on goat-herding immigrants) are remarkably similar to the Rev. Wright (who blames verything on white America) or posters like eyeball (who blames everything on Bush and America).

Seems spot on from here.

[eyeball]

QUOTE(August1991 @ May 26 2008, 11:49 PM)

I was merely observing that posters like Leafless (who blames everything on Quebec and the French) or posters like Argus (who blames everything on goat-herding immigrants) are remarkably similar to the Rev. Wright (who blames verything on white America) or posters like eyeball (who blames everything on Bush and America).

Seems spot on from here.

I dropped my toast butter side down this morning, it must be Bush's fault.

[Black Dog]

I was merely observing that posters like Leafless (who blames everything on Quebec and the French) or posters like Argus (who blames everything on goat-herding immigrants) are remarkably similar to the Rev. Wright (who blames verything on white America) or posters like eyeball (who blames everything on Bush and America).

To paraphrase Dylan, ya gotta blame somebody.

Blame white America?? Well who holds more power in America whites or others? Who has been elected to run the white house ,whites or others. I don't agree with some of the things this guy says but you gotta admit, there's some truth about white america.

It's not exactly a nuanced view, though, is it? Problem with rhetoric like Wright's is that its as subtle as a ballpeen hammer to the skull: there's no distinctions made between the blue collar auto worker whose job just got outsourced to Korea (or worse: Windsor) and the booze-swilling Skull and Boneser. Unfortunately, complex analyses of race, class and other power structures simply don't exist outside of academia because you can't fit them into a 15 second soundbite.

[White Doors]

Unfortunately, complex analyses of race, class and other power structures simply don't exist outside of academia because you can't fit them into a 15 second soundbite.

gee, lots of confidence in yoru fellow man I see..

outside of academia? lol

[Black Dog]

gee, lots of confidence in yoru fellow man I see..

Can you blame me? Look at how they spell.

[margrace]

Well consider this, when the Cosby show came on the TV people were quite upset because no black people lived like that!!!! Well who would have believed???

Young black people finally had a view of what really was and they liked it, it gave them something to strive for

In fact there is a parallel in Canada, When the passenger trains had black porter a large amount of them were univercity educated and that was the only job they could get.

Like the First Nations comments, you have no idea how these people live.

Edited June 3, 2008 by margrace

[bush_cheney2004]

Well consider this, when the Cosby show came on the TV people were quite upset because no black people lived like that!!!! Well who would have believed???

Nonsense...."black people" are not a monolithic block, and exist at all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum. It's not all like "Good Times".

Young black people finally had a view of what really was and they liked it, it gave them something to strive for

In fact there is a parallel in Canada, When the passenger trains had black porter a large amount of them were univercity educated and that was the only job they could get.

Oh no....I thought Canada was paradise for "black people"!

Like the First Nations comments, you have no idea how these people live.

"these people"?

[WIP]

This latest eruption of Obama's pastor, the Rev. Wright, spawned the following column. As I read it, I realized that many Leftists are angry. The Left has a penchant for victimhood and blames the oppressor - often America, the Rich or white people or men.

This isn't a unique feature. On the Right, there are Angry White Men who typically blame immigrants, women, the government, the NDP or God knows who else for their perceived downtrodden status in life.

We have several posters here fall into either category. Indeed, I sometimes wonder about the kinds of internal conversation some of our posters have. I wonder whether they talk to themselves the way that this Rev. Wright does. His internal conversations must be doozies.

Link

Fascinating concept! But why is the Republican-pandering American Thinker focusing attention on Black resentment, while ignoring the White racism against Latinos which is fed by right wing pundits like Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs etc. under the poorly disguised concern over illegal immigration! Read the posts on American conservative forums by the rank and file Republican supporters, and protecting the border is a distant second to "there's too many damn Mexicans coming here", and making sure that America remains a White nation!

On balance, I would say the right is feeding more off of the ugly side of human nature than the left is! Conservatives try as subtly as possible to appeal to White voters' fears of visible minorities, less than visible ones like homosexuals, non-Christians, women of all colours - since they tend to support government programs, fear of terrorism, fear of losing world power status.....every plank of the Conservative and Republican platforms now is an appeal to White insecurity!

The biggest mistake angry leftists make comes from the utopian desire to level outcomes -- success is intrinsically interpreted as ill-gotten gain. For the rich to get rich, someone had to do without because there's a fixed supply of money or wealth in the economy (many on the left do think in these terms)

But Rev. Wright is a bogus example of angry leftists, since he represents an angry segment of a marginalized population that the White majority can ignore as long as they don't have to drive through their neighbourhoods! Wright is a preacher of old style Black Liberation Theology, which comes in many forms, but insists that Blacks cannot achieve success in the White Man's World individually, so they have to remain part of the collective struggle for equality -- and that's why I am very partial to a theory advanced by a few observers familiar with this belief system, that Wright does not want Barach Obama to succeed in his goal to become president! A Black man (or if you prefer, a mixed race man) who is able to single-handedly build a broad based coalition of mostly White voters, with no help from Black community leaders at the start of the campaign, is a repudiation of Liberation Theology and Wright's core message!

Many Black media pundits have talked about a generational divide between the older community leaders who marched with Martin Luther King, and a younger generation of leaders, who they feel, take their struggle for granted because they have more doors opened for them now! If Obama was an angry leftist in the mold of Rev. Wright, as the Republican smear machine is trying to paint it, he would have never run for president in the first place!

[White Doors]

Can you blame me? Look at how they spell.

oh no! a typo retort! colour me embarrassed

[Black Dog]

oh no! a typo retort! colour me embarrassed

Believe me: typos are the least of your embarrassments.

As to the OP, I think it's inaccurate to characterize Wright as a leftist simply be virtue of his association with Obama. To me, his positions hew closer to those of the far-right militia movement.

[M.Dancer]

To me, his positions hew closer to those of the far-right militia movement.

While I agree that black seperatism is similiar to the xenophobic right wing miltia movement....that doesn't preclude black separatism being leftist. As long as the community takes precedence over the individual, and the black community is more important than the black individual...then it is left on the radio dial

[Black Dog]

While I agree that black seperatism is similiar to the xenophobic right wing miltia movement....that doesn't preclude black separatism being leftist. As long as the community takes precedence over the individual, and the black community is more important than the black individual...then it is left on the radio dial

I don't think that's the defining difference between left and right. In certain context, anti-individualism can be a right wing trait. In other words, it doesn't preclude him being a right-winger. Why, it's almost as if such labels as left and right are actually pretty useless except as rhetorical cudgels...

[M.Dancer]

I don't think that's the defining difference between left and right. In certain context, anti-individualism can be a right wing trait. In other words, it doesn't preclude him being a right-winger. Why, it's almost as if such labels as left and right are actually pretty useless except as rhetorical cudgels...

I think the defining difference is the supremacy of the collective which is why National Socialism is left even if it espouses extreme right wing causes...in Wright's case he certainly sounds socialist with rhetoric about financial "equalization" or what ever...

[BubberMiley]

...in Wright's case he certainly sounds socialist with rhetoric about financial "equalization" or what ever...

What are you referring to?

[bush_cheney2004]

I think the defining difference is the supremacy of the collective which is why National Socialism is left even if it espouses extreme right wing causes...in Wright's case he certainly sounds socialist with rhetoric about financial "equalization" or what ever...

One of the whatevers is slavery reparations, something that Wright and his church have advocated:

In 2001, Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ passed a resolution declaring that:

“WHEREAS: The institution of Slavery is internationally recognized as crime for which there is no statute of limitations, AND

WHEREAS: Uncompensated labor was demanded from enslaved Africans and their descendants for more than two centuries on U.S. soil; AND

WHEREAS: The principle that reparations is the appropriate remedy whenever government unjustly abrogates the rights of a domestic group or foreign people whose rights such government is obligated to protect or uphold has been internationally recognized…”

http://www.aim.org/aim-report/obama-and-th...ry-reparations/

No wonder Senator Obama has beat a hasty retreat from his church of over 20 years. His association with such rhetoric is about to get chicken fried by a US presidential general election campaign.

[White Doors]

Blackdog and other leftists have a knee-jerk reaction when a church or prominent church going member is described as leftist. They think that they are too cultured to have leftists among them who believe in a higher power, when in fact, some of the most radical leftists are those from leftist churches.

[M.Dancer]

What are you referring to?

Wright's talking points. You can find them on his church website.

[Black Dog]

Blackdog and other leftists have a knee-jerk reaction when a church or prominent church going member is described as leftist.

Yeah. It's that he's a church goer and not a racist whack-o whose rants are being used to tar not just a presidential candidate, but the entire left.

They think that they are too cultured to have leftists among them who believe in a higher power, when in fact, some of the most radical leftists are those from leftist churches.

Yeah. Like Jesus.

[White Doors]

I see now. You are upset not as to what Rev Wright said, merely by the damage his actions may cause to the leftists? That is what is making you upset? Then I would develop a thicker skin as it is the left's rooster coming home to roost so to speak.

How often does the left trot out Bush = Hitler now a days? Harper = Bush's lapdog?

lol For a leftist to get upset about the right driving the agenda and painting the issues is ridiculous at best and patently hypocritical at worst.

Jesus said to teach a man how to fish as he will eat for a lifetime rather than to give him a fish so that he can eat for a day.

Many of today's leftist social/economic policy encourages the repeat business of giving the poor a fish for a day. Perhaps you would like to use another example that would be accurate.

feel free to point out any typos or grammatical mistakes if this post confounds you to blustering again.

Edited June 4, 2008 by White Doors